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Some presidential candidates surge toward a nomination, some sneak up upon a nomination in the dead of night. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, believing his hour has come round at last, at best seems to be slouching toward the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

With a mixed result on Super Tuesday, Mr. Romney once again has missed an opportunity to put away the race, perhaps even to wrap up the nomination.

And there are dangers ahead. Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri vote next week, and they are by no means natural Romney territory. But despite Tuesday night's muddled finish, Mr. Romney remains in the best position eventually to capture the GOP prize.

"I've listened, and I've learned," he said from his Boston headquarters Tuesday night.

And it is after mega-contests like the 10 conducted Tuesday that candidates girding for a long struggle often pause for introspection.

If Mr. Romney does so, perhaps he might reflect on what he has learned thus far, not from the states he has won and lost but from the rivals who have remained with him in the race:

WHAT MR. ROMNEY CAN LEARN FROM RICK SANTORUM

No major figure on the American political scene has been as far down as Mr. Santorum, who lost his own re-election battle by 18 points six years ago, used his wilderness years to make money and build connections and finally began a presidential campaign that optimists called a long shot and realists called loony.

But with grit and creativity -- and not inconsiderable study, especially in foreign affairs -- the Pennsylvanian battled back, probing the established candidates for weaknesses, searching the political scene for openings.

He visited all 99 counties of Iowa, a quixotic mission reminiscent of Richard Nixon's doomed 1960 promise to visit all 50 states. But for Mr. Santorum that voyage underlined his resilience and established his reach.

Mr. Santorum, victor Tuesday night in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee, proved that a consistent message, repeated consistently, is a potent political weapon.

Unlike Mr. Romney, who is accused of changing his positions the way he changes campaign vestments, Mr. Santorum generally has avoided trimming his positions to the fashions of the seasons.

Even his greatest detractors, and Mr. Santorum's detractors have deeper antipathy for him than critics do for any Republican in the field, would acknowledge that he is the Bartleby the Scrivener of the race, the figure from Herman Melville who would not go away and who would repeatedly offer the same riposte: ``I would prefer not to.''

If the GOP race were decided by pure determination, Mr. Santorum would be the nominee by acclimation.

WHAT MR. ROMNEY CAN LEARN FROM RON PAUL

If Mr. Santorum is Bartleby, then Mr. Paul, the Texas congressman, is Aram Khachaturian, whose "Sabre Dance" from the 1942 ballet "Gayane," opens with 24 F-sharps in a row, a theme which is then repeated immediately, then transposed up a minor third for another iteration, which itself is also repeated.

For decades Mr. Paul, an obstetrician drawn into the political world, has expressed his impatience with the Federal Reserve, his skepticism of an interventionist foreign policy, and his opposition to an intrusive government.

Mr. Romney's position on abortion, by contrast, dates to 2006, the same year Massachusetts, under his leadership, passed a health-care plan that Obama administration officials say was the model for the health-care plan Mr. Romney so ardently opposes.

But Mr. Paul's most compelling attribute is his frankness and his courage. He is willing to take the unpopular position and make the unpopular statement.

Republicans and Democrats alike were attracted to Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the best days of his Straight-Talk Express campaign a dozen years ago, not because they necessarily agreed with his views but because they admired his forthrightness and his readiness to break from orthodoxy.

Mr. Romney has shown neither the instinct nor inclination to do so.

WHAT MR. ROMNEY CAN LEARN FROM NEWT GINGRICH

The former House speaker has many flaws as a presidential candidate but a lack of passion and a deficit of intelligence are not among them.

In debates, in interviews and on the stump, Mr. Gingrich is passion personified, and his raw, sometimes unrefined intelligence was on display.

That isn't what won him Georgia Tuesday night; his roots in the state did that. But it's what kept him in the race, kept him going when all the smart people pronounced him a loser and a goner.

No one since John F. Kennedy has used presidential debates so artfully, and while Kennedy projected cool intelligence, Mr. Gingrich erupted with hot, intense acuity.

Moreover, Mr. Gingrich is the only candidate in the field who shows any joy in the process -- not the politics of joy that Hubert H. Humphrey displayed in 1968, another fraught time, but a joy in exploring topics and themes that engaged his imagination, like space flight, or zoos.

Whether frightened by his zeal or fascinated by his effervescence, viewers and voters simply could not take their eyes off him.

WHAT MR. ROMNEY CAN LEARN FROM MITT ROMNEY

This is the hardest one.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll showed that Mr. Romney holds a strong advantage over Mr. Santorum in being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency.

The results Tuesday night showed that Mr. Romney has the capacity to project strength nationally, not just regionally -- though the South remains a bafflingly elusive prize.

But what eludes Mr. Romney is a sense of ease and confidence. Instead, he seems tentative, awkward even, the prisoner of two terrifying truths -- on the one hand that he is too scripted and on the other that once he veers from the libretto he becomes a comic-opera figure spewing political malaprops, mostly about his wealth.

Mr. Romney can do almost nothing about Mr. Santorum's advantage, according to the Journal/NBC Poll, in being a reliable conservative, and he can perhaps do little about another Santorum advantage, caring about average people.

But if he shows he is comfortable with himself, he might go a long way toward making others feel comfortable with him.

It's the only attribute in politics that is contagious, and Mr. Romney still needs to catch it -- and spread it.

David Shribman, a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism, is executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Previously:

03/05/12 The GOP race continues, and Republicans continue to grouse about their choices
02/27/12 The turnout threat: when voters vamoose
02/20/12 The Winter's Tale: Republicans are engaged in a 'problem play,' full of psychological, and real, drama
02/13/12 Which Ike to like?
02/08/12 A tale of two elections: Voters today are making their most profound choice since 1912
01/30/12 Whither the GOP establishment?
01/23/12 The Democratic coalition is breaking up
01/09/12 The verdict that wasn't
01/02/12 These are the keys to who will persist
12/19/11 Another Gingrich rebellion
12/12/11 A defining fight for the GOP
12/05/11 A distinct lack of enthusiasm
11/28/11 For GOPers, the winds are beginning to pick up, the horizon is darkening
11/21/11 Today's polarized politics . . . blame FDR and the political scientists
11/11/11The sporting life
11/07/11 Ron Paul, true believer
10/31/11 Why Cain isn't able
10/10/11 GOP starting over
10/03/11 The Forgotten War of 1812
09/26/11 The way we live now
09/19/11 The crisis this time
09/11/11 But what will it mean?
09/05/11 A horse race column: Who might win the GOP nomination and how it might unfold
08/29/11 The vacuum calls
08/22/11 Passion and politics: How Barack Obama and Mitt Romney got crowded into the same dangerous corner
08/15/11 Eleanor's little village
08/08/11 The agony of August
08/01/11 The politics of the impossible: What a country this might be if the political class served the broad interests of the majority
07/25/11 Pennant fever grips 'Burgh
07/18/11 Exemplar of an era
07/11/11 On summer
07/04/11 The soul of the party
06/27/11 What the Secretary said
06/20/11 Romney has big advantages over his rivals, but they will be coming after him
06/06/11 One question each
05/30/11 The 14-week challenge
05/23/11 Delay tactics
05/16/11 Republicans are waiting
05/09/11 Bin Laden is dead. What does it mean?
05/02/11 From nobodies to nominees
04/25/11 The founders left slavery for future generations to settle, and we still haven't fully come to terms with it
04/18/11 From audacious to cautious
04/11/11 Dreaming of space
12/12/10 The GOP takes control
12/06/10 DECEMBER 7
11/29/10 GOP presidential hopefuls already are lining up local supporters in what is now a red state
11/22/10 Burning down the House
11/15/10 Institutions of higher learning are finally beginning to teach important lifeskills
11/04/10 The war has just begun
11/01/10 Echoes of a speech 40 years ago this week still resonate today
10/25/10 50 years ago America chose between two men who were dramatically different --- and eerily similar